Electronic Arts new Chief Executive, John Riccitiello, who started in April, worries that his company as well as others in the video game industry lack innovation. He says they need to push more aggressively to attract the casual gamer and change the routine of selling $50 - $60 discs that take 40 hours to play that few ever finish. We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play," Mr. Riccitiello said in an interview. He adds that there are exceptions like "Guitar Hero" and "World of Warcraft" but for the most part the industry has been rinse and repeat. Mr. Riccitiello's comments come as the industry prepares for this year's E3 Conference.

Erm, I do get there were few 'amazing' games recently and that people cry over failing in Farcry but... I do not want 5-7 hour games like Unreal 2 or Prey. That IS boring.

20-40 hours is awesome, if the story catches you. And I get not everyone is up for 100 hours of Final Fantasy/Elderscrolls/whatsoever. Just that hardly any game has a good story nowadays. Gears of War? Yeah, nice eyecandy but story fails so hard.

And of course you do not necessarily need a good story to sell a game, but it helps. (CS anyone?)

Erm, I do get there were few 'amazing' games recently and that people cry over failing in Farcry but... I do not want 5-7 hour games like Unreal 2 or Prey. That IS boring.

20-40 hours is awesome, if the story catches you. And I get not everyone is up for 100 hours of Final Fantasy/Elderscrolls/whatsoever. Just that hardly any game has a good story nowadays. Gears of War? Yeah, nice eyecandy but story fails so hard.

And of course you do not necessarily need a good story to sell a game, but it helps. (CS anyone?)

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clearly from the article he wants to appeal to more casual gamers who wont be playing 40 hours, at the sametime though he knows that games that are long need to have a great story and that is truly lacking. personally i think most games are boring. when i was six i could play this game called 'soloflight' for hours and never accomplish anything but it was still fun. today im running around shooting things that look real but i get bored after a half hour. perhaps it is because i am older or perhaps it is because FPS have become old hat.

Maybe EA isn't so bad after all. I can't wait to see some of the games they're coming out with that aren't "rinse and repeat", unless of course he's just confessing an industry crime :shadedshu .

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you would think with comments like he made that EA is planning on putting out some pretty sweet games in the future. the funny thing is he didnt blame piracy for slow growth last year. this new guy might actually do something!

Shooting things is fun.....always has been. As a US citizen, a huge portion of my income is taken from me every year and spent on our Armed Forces, just so they can shoot and shoot and shoot...and so on....and they really kill people, not just bots in a game.

I have found that a boring game...such as BF2...can be much much more enjoyable when the player can customize the weapons. For example, tweak the scope settings on the sniper rifle so you can see 1 mile away; tweak the round quantity in the magazine so you now have 250 rounds rather than the measly 5 or 10. Tweak the damage level of each bullet so you can take out helicopters in only 10 shots. Tweak the amount of C4 you carry so you can truly demolish all enemy artillery and intel targets without replenishing ammo. Tweak the sound of your rifle to your liking. Tweak the velocity of the bullets, so they drop as gravity requires.

Of course all the above tweaks are considered to be cheats in BF2 multiplayer, but are they really? If everyone knew how to customize and the game allowed it, then no one would have a major advantage. However, everyone would keep tweaking to find the next advantage....and the tweaking effort would consume a huge amount of time.

If a player can customize their game play experience, they will be much more devoted to the game, for a longer period of time.

I agree wholeheartedly - I've finished so few games over the last few years it's pathetic. And it's not for lack of trying - they are simply too predictable, too repetitive, too regurgitated. I don't think "casual" is the right term, though. It assumes that the schlock that has been made the last few years in something on the order of "hardcore" which is hardly the case.

Thank the makers for Oblivion, which has been the game I come back to time and time again after trying out countless others. I still haven't finished the main quest even.

I think he´s just pissed off because of Crysis coming out and EA not being able to make such a piece of art themselves. Thats why he´s trying to push the whole gaming industry back to super mario and tetris era. Dude, get over it, simulation of reality and intense action is what we need.

I would totally agree with this... I tend to get bored of running back and forth finishing various quests along the way and killing hordes of people or beasts. I started playing World of Warcraft 7 months ago, and after 50+ hours it is getting very old. We need more of the timeless games like Starcraft and Diablo. I was pumped about Spores, but I am not sure if it is going to ever be released. A game like that could be a welcome "breath of fresh air". Even simple things like Sudoku offers a nice break from time to time.

One more thing... I do not mind if they make the games look awesome for those that can afford $600 video cards, but please allow them scale down so that my kids can play them on their PC. I guarantee that if World of Warcraft or even the Sims 2 needed a $200+ video card to be playable, then neither one would be in the all-time top 10 list.

a lot of EA games do support widescreen, its just that EA refuses to add it to older games.

Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142 do NOT support widescreen - it stretches to fit. You can hack it, but its really using a 4:3 ratio and chopping off the top and bottom (while still keeping the hud/GUI on screen)